INCANTAMENTO

Relax and meditation: this is what this album is for. Recording sounds from nature in the countryside of Tuscany and applying drone music over them. The first of the two long tracks "Lunae" ("Of the Moon" in Latin) features cicadas which give the idea of a summer evening. An incomplete chord, potentially a major one with its harmonics stands for more than 54 minutes.

Lay down, wear the headphone and close your eyes. The music will do the rest.

The second track, of about 19 minutes, is "Waters", and of course the sound of running water and drops are the main theme. More or less the same chord of the first track, but the subject of both is nature. Real instruments are just a companion for sounds that even alone can raise sensations in your mind.

If you can, go to Tuscany's seaside in a summer evening, rest in one of its pinewoods. Then you'll be exactly where this album is bringing you to.

While I do not listen to his works often, I have a soft spot for Alio Die's music, mostly as this nice, pretty, and calming output of ambient music. Whilst I know ambient music isn't quite unique, especially since most of it spins around the same wheel that works from Brian Eno, Steve Roach, and Harold Budd spin around, I think Alio Die does have a bit more unique sensibilities going for him, creating music that is a lot more meditative and natural sounding.

I find Incantamento, his 15th studio album in his long discography, to be one that really creates this natural mood quite well. A lot of the sounds and effects on these two long pieces of music use a lot of audio from rushing water, bugs, and other things found in nature, and to my opinion, use these nature recordings quite well within Alio Die's droney sounds.

I find what drives me to this album the most is the big 54 minute track of Lunae, being this beautiful collage in a meditative?ambient trip, with bells and whistles from frogs and bugs, with water rushing in the back to give this a more forestry, and almost pastoral feel. I really like this track, despite its long length.

Though, I will say the track of Waters isn't quite needed, since I find Lunae to work completely fine without it. Even then, I also find Lunae itself to be a bit much, and while I won't scoff at Alio Die for wanting to make lengthy pieces, I also think he should've split the track into two parts, as I feel like listening to a near hour long piece of ambient music, one that isn't as important to my life as Brian Eno's Thursday Afternoon, can be quite lackluster in the wrong moments. Ultimately, I like both Lunae and Waters. I think Lunae is this really pretty collage of ambient and nature, and Waters achieves these two but on a smaller scale, but I cannot help but feel like there is a lot of fat to scrape off.

Another pretty great Alio Die release. He really does know how to make his crafts, though I still think, despite this, he may always have a bit of problems within his line of work. If you like listening to nature recordings and the like, Incantamento is a good endeavor for your green needs.